Noxious Plant In The North Country

Response Team Fights Giant Howeed

Imagine going out to do some weeding and ending up with severe burns, sensitivity to sunlight, and possibly blindness.

There's an invasive plant in the Champlain Valley that can do that, and a team of experts is going after it in hazmat suits.

"The sap causes photodermatitis and it really changes the makeup of your skin," said Brendan Quirion of the Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program, or APIPP.

The sap from giant hogweed can cause severe burns and blistering that leaves the skin scarred and so sensitive to sunlight that exposure could bring those blisters and burns back again -- for years.

"And there's pictures online of kids that have permanent burns on their face, permanent and permanent scarring that they're going to have to deal with the rest of their lives," said Quirion.

Giant Hogweed, which can grow more than 10 feet tall with enormous leaves, was brought to North America from Europe and Asia as a novelty.

"Any plant that grows 15 feet tall and has a two-and-a-half-foot-wide flower is hard to miss and people want to have the latest and greatest in their gardens," said Quirion.

The latest outbreak in the North Country started when a family in Essex, New York -- unaware of the danger -- procured seeds and planted giant hogweed on their lakeside property.

"Any plants that are growing near the water like this -- they'll put thousands and thousands of seeds into the water and those seeds can go across to Vermont, they can go all the way down to Lake George," said Quirion. "Lake Champlain is huge."

When people started recognizing and reporting hogweed last year, APIPP sprung into action and treated all the confirmed sites.

One year later the team is going back, spraying any new hogweed plants and monitoring progress.

There were three main sites to treat, all in Essex. The worst was the original property where the hogweed was planted.

"And there's only a few stragglers that we have to re-treat, so we're making progress," said Quirion.

"Grace is 80 years old and she loves to do gardening. If she had come out and wanted to pull these things one day, she could have burns the rest of her life, permanent scarring. It could have even killed her if she had gotten it really bad," said Quirion.

APIPP expects it will take years to totally clear the properties, but they are ready to act whenever they are notified of more plants.

"It's a big problem and we're trying to protect people from it because we don't want to see people get burned by it," Quirion said.

If you spot giant hogweed in N.Y. call the hotline at 845-256-3111.

For more information go to http://www.vtinvasives.org/invaders/gaint-hogweed

Note that giant hogweed can be confused with cow parsnip and angelica. Hogweed's telltale characteristic is red and purble spots on a fuzzy stalk.

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